OT-Catholic son received Jewish gift

I know this is totally OT but I wanted some outside opinions. My son, David, is 7 years old & Catholic. Bg- my husbands name is also David. When he was about 8 years old his Catholic grandparents bought him a gold star of David necklace. Why? I have no idea. He loved it and wore it often. My MIL saved the necklace and decided to hand it down to my son at my baby shower this past weekend. My son now loves the necklace. I didn't think much about it when he received but now I'm starting to question it. After the shower my father said he had many people ask if my son was Jewish, of coarse he responded no. Do you think it's harmless to let him wear it or is it disrespectful? I would hate to hurt anyone feelings due to my ignorance. I made him take it off when we got home but he is asking to wear it again.

Comments (11)

I would ask MIL the signifcance behind it and why her son wore it. Is the Star of David specific to Judaism? It's not a disresectful symbol, and if your son likes to wear it and it's an heirloom, I don't see the harm.

If he wants to wear it I would just let him wear it. I personally don't think it's a big deal. Making an issue out of it will just draw more attention to it. My daughter just turned 8 and she will love something for a day or two then forget about it and be onto something else.

I'm sure your son doesn't see it as a religion thing, it's more like a special gift to him, it shouldn't matter what other people think, your son wearing it means he takes pride in it because it was once his fathers.
Other people will talk, but it's not hurting anybody. :)

I agree with Juliana - I don't see the issue at all. It's a family heirloom and the roots of Christianity lie in Judaism. Maybe you could use it as a great learning tool for the family to understand where Christianity began, learn about Jesus being Jewish and what that meant, etc.

Thanks ladies. I think it was orginally bought just for the name and not seen as a religious symbol. My son doesn't know it's a religious symbol, he just likes it cause it was dads. I feel better about it now. :)

I'm going to respectfully question if most of the PPs have had that much exposure to Judaism. Although I'm not Jewish myself, I live in Los Angeles and have worked with, studied with, dated, lived with, and enjoyed the company of many Jews, and can probably give you a better answer to your question.

First, here's my understanding/experience with the Star of David: In Judaism, the Star is pretty darn specific to both Jewish religion and ethnicity for at least the last thousand years. That's why it's on the national flag of Israel - and why the Nazis forced Jews to sew it on their clothes during WWII. Even in Los Angeles, with a heavy Jewish population overall, Star of David jewelry is only really sold in Judica gift shops, rarely in general jewelry stores. The only time I've ever seen a non-Jew wearing one is when she was trying to get the lease to a nice apartment owned by an observant Jew.

To answer your question if it's offensive for your son to wear it... Well, some people will see it as a bit ignorant/odd, and a few Orthodox Jews will well wince at the idea. That said, if you really want your son to wear the necklace, you could try telling people that he's wearing it in honor of his great-grandparents and hope to leave it at that.

BTW, you may want to look into your husband's family history - my immediate reaction was to wonder if his grandparents may have been raised Jewish and converted (voluntarily or not) to Catholicism. That happened a lot in the old days, especially in Europe just before WWII. Just a thought...

My DF is Jewish and my family is Catholic. My cousin has a star of David that she wears every day because it has sentimental value to her (I think it was her grandma's or something). My DF doesn't care, and his family doesn't either, but he did wonder why she did it and if it had some other meaning. He said some may find it offensive since not everybody knows the meaning behind it (specially the very religious ones).

I guess it just depends why you do it, so if it has a special meaning in your DH family it should be fine and teach your son about it so he has an honest informed answer when/if he gets questions about it.